Author's Note: IN my AU, Jack was never cloned by Loki. This is the first time we've seen him. (Another language alert, by the way).
OOOOOOO
A phone ringing in the middle of the night is one of the worst ways to wake up as far as Jack O'Neill was concerned. Not only because it startles you – especially if the phone is close to your ear – but because most of the time people won't call in the middle of the night unless they have bad news. Good news, he'd noticed, could wait for morning. Bad news always demanded immediate attention. So when the phone rang in the middle of the night, he groaned and buried his face between Sam's shoulder blades.
"Don't get that…"
She sighed, and rolled over. The phone was on his side of the bed.
"It's probably important."
"It's probably Hammond… he's changed his mind and we can't be married anymore…"
Sam giggled, running her hand through his hair lightly.
"It might be a little late for the."
The phone rang again, insistently, and Jack tightened his hold on her before she could reach over him and get it.
"It's probably Ian… He's awake and wants someone to come down and spring him from the infirmary. Tell him to call Fraiser."
She smiled, and freed her hand, reaching for the phone before the ringing could possibly wake up Jake and Shawn in their bedrooms.
"Hello?"
"Sam. It's Janet."
Sam smiled, poking Jack.
"It's Janet."
"Tell her I don't want any…"
"What's up, Janet?"
"I don't suppose you guys took Ian from the infirmary without letting anyone know?"
Sam frowned.
"Ian? No. Why?"
The change in her tone alerted Jack that something was up, and he raised his face from where it had been resting just above her breasts so he could see her expression.
"What's up?"
"Shh."
She couldn't carry on two conversations at once. Not right after waking up, anyways. Luckily, Janet heard Jack's question so Sam didn't have to repeat it.
"Sometime this evening, Ian vanished from my infirmary," Janet said, with more than a touch of annoyance in her voice. "They've checked the entire base, and no one can find him."
"Have someone call the gate and see where he went," Sam suggested.
"They did that before they called me," Janet told her. "He didn't leave."
"Then he's still on the base," Jack said, able to hear Janet's reply easily in the quiet of their bedroom.
"Then I suggest you come down here and find him," Janet snapped. "Because I've been here twenty minutes and I certainly can't."
"He doesn't have any reason to be hiding from you," Sam said, reasonably, knowing that she was irritated because of the time of night and frustration.
"I know, Sam. Which was why I was hoping Colonel O'Neill was playing some kind of trick on us."
"Not this time."
"Tell her we'll be right there," Jack said. "Something's obviously going on… Ian disappearing is never a good thing."
"Especially when he should still be out like a light," Sam added.
"You're coming down?" Janet clarified.
"Yes."
"I'll let General Hammond know."
"Hammond's there?" Jack asked.
"He's coming in."
Of course he was. Ian was a responsible young man, but if he was missing, then there was a reason. And with the knowledge that he had stuck in his brain, they definitely didn't want to lose track of him for long. Which meant bringing in all your resources to try and figure out where he went.
"We'll be right there," Sam promised.
"I'll be in the infirmary."
OOOOOOOOOO
"You mean prisoner," Ian said, scowling, and looking around the little room they were in.
"I said guest," Loki corrected.
"Can I leave?"
"Not yet."
"Then I'm not a fucking guest, am I?"
"You are agitated," the Asgard noted. "That is unfortunate."
"Fuck you, you little-"
"Perhaps if you had something to eat you would feel more like helping me…"
"I don't want anything to eat," Ian told him. "And I'm sure as shit not helping you."
"Then I will not return you to Earth. It is that simple."
"You think my friends aren't going to figure out where I am?" Ian asked, frustrated and feeling like he was talking to a child. "They will."
He actually wasn't so certain, but someone had to be missing him by now. He glanced at his watch, noticing that it was still the middle of the night. No one would miss him for a while, most likely. Which was a problem.
"They will not know where to look for you," Loki told him, still calm – especially compared to Ian, who was on the verge of an explosion. "I have taken the ship out of Earth's orbit and we are now on our way-"
"We're not orbiting Earth?"
"No. When I could not wake you, I knew I would need more time – especially if your friends did realize you were missing. I did not have time to try and clone you, which would have-"
"Clone me?"
"To keep the others from noticing you were missing…"
"You fucking little-"
"As I was saying, I moved the ship out of Earth's orbit, in case the people at the SGC realize it was Asgard technology that removed you from your bed and called Thor or one of the others. I could not hide my presence from one of my own kind in such a small area."
"You mean the other Asgard don't even know what you're doing?"
Oh, that was just fucking great. Loki was some kind of rouge Asgard or something. Just lovely. Another Cato all over again.
"They would not approve," Loki said, unmindful of the way Ian started looking around him intently. "They have the same goal as myself, but seek the solution in another fashion."
"Yeah?" Ian needed to get out of this room and see where he was and what was going on. To do that, he figured he'd at least show an interest in what the little gray sonofabitch wanted. "What goal is that? Pissing off the Earthlings?"
"We're looking for a way to save our race," Loki said. "And when I find it, the others will understand that my more direct methods are far more effective than their long-term ones are."
"What makes you think I'm going to be able to help you?" Ian asked. "Presuming I even want to?"
"You have the knowledge of the Ancients," Loki said simply. "You must know something I do not. Something that can work where all my experiments have failed."
Well, shit.
